Buried Ways
by lye tea
Summary: Forever and a day. 50 sentences. Caius/Yeul


**A/N: **50 sentences

* * *

**Buried Ways**

_01. Walking_

It pained him to see her limp, but he would never tell her that (would pain her more).

_02. Waltz_

Yeul didn't like to dance, and he too lingered behind, devoted and by her side.

_03. Wishes_

He wished there was an end to this curse, to this eternity that decayed in reverse, but then remembered he wasn't too long apart from her.

_04. Wonder_

In Paddra, Yeul was a wonder (a living gift from Etro) but with him, she was a tragedy waiting to unleash.

_05. Worry_

She could smile day-in and night-out because he worried (feared) for both of them.

_06. Whimsy_

Her cycles were like a divine whimsy designed for him—bristling lies of something that couldn't be changed.

_07. Waste/Wasteland_

"Five hundred years, and then you will leave me," she said, embracing him (preserving their little moments for that-one-day).

_08. Whiskey and rum_

Her first sip was small and deliberate; amused, Caius watched as she grimaced at the taste.

_09. War_

One day, all will end and he will be free—_"with his Yeul"_—from his war-torn, diseased heart.

_10. Weddings_

Yeul had witnessed thousands of weddings and each time, with dark eyes, she asked him why the brides were smiling.

_11. Birthday_

He left today because it was her birthday, her deathday.

_12. Blessings_

She was not a goddess and so, her blessings inevitably came half-cursed.

_13. Bliss_

Yeul laughed when he brought her the Chocobo chick (cried when she died, holding the bird against her chest).

_14. Burning_

On the outskirts of Haerii, they stopped to rest and smell the burning of thatched roofs and timber halls.

_15. Breathing_

Her breathing was light, shortened, and tasted faintly of tart plums.

_16. Breaking_

And gradual and small, she will break, becoming a vanishing act set on loop.

_17. Belief_

The people of Paddra took her sermons as god-sent, adamant, and only he knew that believing (faith) was the self-incursion of doom.

_18. Balloon_

Twice a year, the peddler passed by, and Caius would purchase her balloons, marking down the occasions till zero.

_19. Balcony_

Happy, she leapt from the ledge and fell—worlds away (_had to, you see, it must be_).

_20. Bane_

Yeul never lamented her fate, never protested when the time came (he did instead, shouldering her pain).

_21. Quiet_

The penultimate Yeul was quiet, an enigma who liked to play sad songs at dawn, and the ultimate one to seal his heart.

_22. Quirks_

They all had their quirks, and he loved each one—each Yeul—for her flaws.

_23. Question_

"Why does it hurt?" she never asked.

_24. Quarrel_

He could count the number of instances they argued on a single hand (and how he was always the first to apologize each time).

_25. Quitting_

Sometimes, he dreamed of quitting, of disavowing, of abandoning—only to return to her forever again.

_26. Jump_

Jump, _don't be afraid_, he'll be there to catch you.

_27. Jester_

"I want you to forget me completely," she joked, knowing it wasn't funny (an incredible fantasy).

_28. Jousting_

Caius had been her knight for so long that it took her nearly fifteen years to realize that Noel was the one fighting for her all along.

_29. Jewel_

She preferred candy to pearls, forests to tapestries, and him to peace.

_30. Just_

Justice was fallacious, just like his promises that everything will be all right.

_31. Smirk_

Tracing the edge of his mouth, the slight upturn at the corner, Yeul wondered how he'd react if she kissed him.

_32. Sorrow_

She always died with a smile, afraid to show him otherwise.

_33. Stupidity_

Stupidity was falling for her over and over and over (just once more) again and all the while knowing it was destined to fail.

_34. Serenade_

"Sing for me, please," _like you used to do when I was young and we were happy._

_35. Sarcasm_

Caius was too serious to appreciate sarcasm and so, Yeul agonized endlessly over the merits and demerits of confessing her prank.

_36. Sordid_

It was not appalling, _heinous_, it was consequential, it was…he released her stiff hand.

_37. Soliloquy_

Academia was paradise ablaze, animated by the resurrected hopes of long-gone souls, and here, Caius delivered her eulogy.

_38. Sojourn_

Afflicted, both, and she on her endless, moribund journey.

_39. Share_

Noel didn't like to share; neither did Caius.

_40. Solitary_

Together for millennia, alone for perpetuity.

_41. Nowhere_

When Paddra collapsed, Yeul ceased being The Seeress and became—like him—a wanderer.

_42. Neutral_

It was out of respect for her memory that he didn't slay the boy.

_43. Nuance_

Black at dawn, violet under a noon-cast sun, and silverlit in the twilight (he had the most beautiful hair she'd ever seen).

_44. Near_

She was close enough for him to touch and distant enough to grieve.

_45. Natural_

Excruciating was witnessing her funeral, was something that had become natural.

_46. Horizon_

Oerba slept in the far north, in the white death of glory and memory, and he will make it their new home.

_47. Valiant_

Yeul trusted him implicitly, even though he begged her not to (knew that one day he will disappear).

_48. Virtuous_

Virtue was the art of forgiving, of convincing himself that it was all, purely for her sake.

_49. Victory_

Slaying god was an incomparable exhilaration (so was feeling her beside him, finally free).

_50. Defeat_

Only to her will he ever surrender.


End file.
